Have You Seen The Remote?

Where is that remote? - Somehow those pesky remotes have a way of disappearing - under the sofa or rug or that blanket you snuggled into the last night. Fear not, as usual some brilliant scientists have come up with a way to make your life easier - change the television channel or volume by simply waving your hand!

Known as 'Gesture Interface Technology', it was developed at a Cambridge laboratory by Dr. Bjorn Stenger. It works by installing a small camera inside a television that senses when a person enters its field of vision. It then searches for the hand and takes up the commands from there. So waving a hand up or down could mean changing the volume, a raised hand may be the signal to pause a DVD. They also expect to have a cursor on the television screen, which can be use with thumb gestures.

Scientists are still trying to figure out how to program the camera to distinguish between a real gesture and an involuntary one, like a sneeze or cough.

However, once the kinks are all sorted out, scientists believe that they can add new features like allowing users to be able to program their own made-up gestures. Even cooler than that, the system could be programmed to recognize regular viewers as they walk into the room and automatically switch to their favorite television channel - The possibilities are endless!

But don't throw away that remote yet - for it could take another four to five years before this technology is perfected and available to all of us. Until then we are resigned to the age-old question - Where is that remote???

Sources: dailymail.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk, yahoonews.com